Calcium Resonium

Hyperkalaemia – Calcium Resonium

Calcium Resonium

A Review on the role of this drug in Acute Hyperkalaemia

(1) ‘There is Dubious Evidence for the use of this Drug‘

– Original Evidence for Calcium Resonium was in the 1960s (see below).

– The resin was invented in the 1950s for industrial purposes and then someone had the idea of putting it in patients colons to exchange cations and hence bind potassium (mostly absorbed in the colon).

– Findings? – patients who got the laxative had LOWER K after the 5 days of the study than the patients that got Resonium

(2) It may be ‘Ineffective’

– Since the 1960s studies referred to above, further investigations into the efficacy of Calcium Resonium in treating hyperkalaemia have been limited.

– One small study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9773794) in 1998 showed no change in serum potassium concentration after a single dose of binding resin or placebo (both with and without a sorbitol additive)

– They concluded – “Because single-dose resin-cathartic therapy produces no or only trivial reductions in serum potassium concentration, and because this therapy is unpleasant and occasionally is associated with serious complications, this study questions the wisdom of its use in the management of acute hyperkalaemic episodes.”

– There was also a study that measured stool K suggesting it didn’t work